


Jester and the Witch's Flower

by Tigerlilly244



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Mary and the Witch's Flower AU, Molly is technically not in the fic, Tags will update as needed, but he is mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-08-02 18:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16310030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tigerlilly244/pseuds/Tigerlilly244
Summary: Jester doesn't really want to move in with her Great Uncle Caleb, but there's a lot of reasons why it's happening. She has one month to explore before her mama finishes up with work and comes to join them in the countryside. In the meantime, she gets into trouble the only way she knows how...picking magical flowers, turning them into flower crowns, and getting whisked away to a college of magic. What she didn't intend, however, was to put her neighbor Fjord at risk.It's a Mary and the Witch's Flower/Little Broomstick AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second ever fanfiction that I've written, but my very first Critical Role fic.

Jester stood on the train platform holding her suitcase in one hand and twirling one of her ribbons with the other. She wasn’t quite sure who was supposed to be picking her up. When she agreed to come ahead of her mama to move in with their Great Uncle Caleb, she hoped for a well-dressed man holding a sign with her name on it who would drive her away to her new home in the country—like in the books or the movies!

But when she looked around, there was no handsome man or a sign with her name on it. She sighed and dropped her hand from her hair. She knew there were a lot of reasons why she and her mama were moving, but that didn’t mean she had to like any of it. She _liked_ Nicodranas. She liked being close to the ocean and she liked the colorful rooftops that she could see from her bedroom window. So what if she’d been expelled from almost every school in the city and every private tutor had quit after just one week of working with her? They just couldn’t take a joke! All those pranks were perfectly harmless—the Traveler said so.

She toed a crack in the concrete of the station floor. Then again, her mama was very tired. Her mama worked so hard every day and even though she was a legend along the Menagerie Coast, she still needed a little bit of a break. And she definitely wanted to be closer to their remaining family. But did a little bit of a break really constitute an entire move? Even if it was to be closer to their Great Uncle Caleb!

Jester sighed and began to pick at the lace on her dress. She didn’t know a whole lot about her Great Uncle Caleb. He was a mystery to her, and even though she loved mysteries, she wasn’t so sure how she felt about living in a near stranger’s house for an entire month waiting for her mama. He probably wasn’t so bad considering the all the cards he’d sent her and mama over the years, but there was never a time she could remember him coming to visit. She frowned. But she did remember someone in a brightly colored coat visiting a couple of times when she was super little. There’s no way that was Great Uncle Caleb though—all of his letters sounded too stuffy for him to dress so wonderfully.

“Are you Jessie?” A shrill voice asked her. Jester jumped, shaken out of her thoughts, and looked around. “Down here!” Jester looked down and saw the shortest woman she’d ever met _ever_ —she barely even came up to Jester’s chest. “I’m Nott, Caleb’s housekeeper. I’m here to pick you up.”

Nott certainly wasn’t a handsome man with her name on a sign, but Jester supposed she wasn’t the worst welcoming committee either. Her long black hair went down all the way down her back, and in the front, hung down the sides of her face to the middle of her stomach. She was dressed rather warmly for the summer weather in an oversized sweater and jeans, gloves and boots, and a light gray bandana around her neck that was ready to be pulled up over her mouth and nose at a moment’s notice. She looked at Jester with large eyes, the corners of her thin mouth turned downwards in thought.

Jester liked her right away.

“You can call me Jester!” She took Nott’s unoffered hand in her own and shook it. “It’s very nice to meet you, Nott! Is your nosed pierced?”

Nott’s gloved hand was limp in her grasp but tightened in confidence, and the short woman smiled a little bit. Jester caught a glimpse of crooked teeth. “Yes…my nose is pierced.”

“I like it. I want to get my nose pierced one day maybe.”

“One day maybe,” Nott agreed. She motioned to Jester’s suitcase with her free hand. “Can I take your bag?”

“Oh!” Jester let go of Nott’s hand. “Are you sure you can carry it? It’s as big as you almost. No offense.”

“No offense, but that also means it’s as big as you—almost.”

Jester grinned. “I guess you can take it, but let me know if you change your mind. I don’t mind carrying it.” She held the suitcase out to Nott who took it easily, but it almost touched the ground from her height. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Nott said and turned around. She began to walk away and Jester skipped after her.

“Did you drive here, Nott? What kind of car do you drive? Is it nice? There are some cars where I come from, but a lot of people prefer to walk or ride bicycles. I saw some people on motorcycles once! Like a gang on TV. Leather jackets and everything. A lot of the time, people will ride around on mopeds—especially food delivery people. They wear these funny helmets and goggles. I wanted to ride one but mama said I had to wait until I got older. How old are you, Nott? Is that rude? Mama says I shouldn’t ask ladies how old they are, but you don’t look that old so I think it’s okay. I’m almost eleven years old.”

Nott huffed out a laugh as they walked through the train station outside to the parking lot. “Do you breathe, Jester?”

Jester inhaled sharply. “I just did right now!”

Nott stopped in front of an old beaten up pick-up and Jester just barely caught herself before bumping into the woman’s back. It looked like a toy truck Jester used to play with when she was younger, with a wooden bed and a light blue cabin—only this was _way_ rustier. “You’re going to make Caleb very tired,” Nott said matter-of-fact, and swung Jester’s suitcase up into the bed of the truck.

“What’s Great Uncle Caleb like?”

“Caleb is the smartest person you’ll ever meet!” Nott said.

“Smarter than even my mama?”

“I don’t know about your mama,” she said and opened the passenger door for Jester, “but Caleb knows everything about everything. And if he doesn’t know something, then he learns it!”

“Is he old?”

“Well he is your _Great_ Uncle Caleb,” Nott said as she climbed into the driver’s side. Jester stared at the phone books Nott sat on. She wondered if the woman could even reach the pedals. She didn’t crane her neck to look whether or not this was the case as Nott put the key into the ignition, but she clicked her seatbelt into place and made sure it was snug.

“Is he lonely? Mama said part of the reason we’re moving is to keep him company.”

Nott was quiet for a moment as the engine stuttered and then roared into life. The truck shuddered as she reversed out of her parking spot. “Caleb can be a private man sometimes,” she said cautiously, “but the people he keeps close are people who are dear to him.”

“Are you dear to him then? Will I be too? What about my mama? I don’t ever remember meeting him, and mama doesn’t talk a whole lot about him. I’ve gotten cards from him though! They all have a very cute cat on them—every single one he’s ever sent. Does he have a cat? Is he a nice cat?”

“Frumpkin is a very nice cat.”

“His cat’s name is Frumpkin?” Jester squealed. “I am so excited! I cannot wait to meet him. How far away from here is Uncle Caleb’s house? I want to play with Frumpkin right now! I bet he is very sweet. Sweeter than the tiny unicorns in the trees on the way here!”

“Tiny unicorns?”

“Oh yes,” Jester said. “I imagined them looking at me through the windows on the train.”

“Tell me more about them!"

"Okay! I will tell you _all_ about them! Oh! And all about my friend, the Traveler, too!"

***

“Woah!” Jester pressed her forehead and nose against the glass of the truck window and tried to sit up straighter in her seat to get a better look through the splatter of tall trees. Once they’d left the train station, there hadn’t been a lot to see. Mostly country. Now, as they got closer, Jester could see a large three-story house of red brick and climbing green ivy.

She craned her head as Nott turned a corner. The front of the house was decorated with so many windows that Jester wasn’t sure if she count all the rooms even if she tried. One, two, three, four, five, no, Nott turned another corner and a beautiful garden opened up for her to see. A small field of flowers stretched in front of the house, out of sight and hidden behind the trees from the main road, but out in the open for any visitor to see once they got closer. She thought she saw a straw hat poking out from the far corner of the garden, closest to the toolshed a short distance from the house. Smoke puffed from one of several chimneys.

“Is this Great Uncle Caleb’s house?” Jester asked.

“It’s your house now too,” Nott said.

“It’s even bigger than where me and mama used to live! And there’s so many flowers! And, and—” Jester sucked in a breath and held it there for a moment before blowing out, “I cannot believe I’ve never been here before! I am going to make like, _so_ many flower crowns."

Nott grinned as she parked the truck in between the house and the toolshed. Jester unbuckled her seatbelt and hopped out the second Nott's foot was off the pedals. She looked around, buzzing with excitement. She wanted to go everywhere at once, right now.

She settled for, "Where is Frumpkin?"

"He's around," Nott promised. She walked around to the back of the truck, and hopped up onto the bed with surprising grace to retrieve Jester's suitcase.

"Do you want help?" Jester asked, but Nott shook her head.

"I've got it, don't worry,” she said and crouched a little bit, ready to jump.

“Careful, Nott.” A kind voice said. Jester turned to look to see who had spoken and her mouth dropped open in surprise. If Nott was the shortest woman she had ever met, then this newcomer was the tallest man she had ever seen.

He walked towards them from the door of toolshed and Jester recognized the straw hat she’d seen from the car window on top of his head. Long pink hair pooled over one shoulder of his untucked denim work-shirt. With a long slender hand, he scratched the side of his thin, bearded face, and he smiled at the two of them. When he turned his head to look at her, Jester saw a long curling wooden earring poking out of his ear. “Hello there,” he said.

If he had picked Jester up from the train station, he wouldn’t have even needed a sign with her name on it for her to see him. But unlike Nott who sat on phonebooks while driving, Jester wondered if this man could even fold himself into the truck to fit behind the wheel.

“Mr. Clay! This is Jester, Caleb’s Great niece!”

“Great niece? I’m sure you are a great niece,” he said. “I’m Caduceus Clay. It’s nice to meet you, Jester.” He knelt down and offered his hand to her. Jester took it and her entire hand was swallowed up in his.

“I love your hair,” she said leaning forward. Caduceus smiled and took off his straw hat so that she could see it better. Now that Jester could see the top of his head, she noticed that the roots of his hair were dark brown—just like his beard. “If you bleached another section of your hair, you’d look just like Neapolitan ice cream!”

Caduceus laughed and put his hat back on. “I like you,” he said straightening up.

“I like you too! Can you do my hair, Caduceus?”

“Like Neapolitan ice cream?” He asked.

“No! Well, maybe.”

“I think you’d look good with cotton candy hair, Jester.” Nott said as she jumped down from the back of the truck. Caduceus caught her before her feet hit the ground and set her down gently. “Thank you, Mr. Clay.”

“I would love cotton candy hair!” Jester gasped. “Can you make my hair like cotton candy?”

Caduceus scratched the side of his face again and looked down at her, thoughtful. “Sure I can. Well…I think so. Probably. I don’t see why not. Yeah, I can do that.”

“I am so excited! My mama will be so surprised when she sees my hair, she’ll be like, ‘Oh Jester, you look so sweet! Just like cotton candy!’”

“You seem pretty sweet already,” Nott said. “I think Caleb will think so too.”

“You should probably go inside and meet him, huh Jester?” Caduceus said. “I know, why don’t I come inside too and make everyone some tea. That’ll be nice.” He bent down to take Jester’s suitcase from Nott who swatted his hand away. Caduceus chuckled and stood up straight. “Let’s go inside.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was actually really afraid to write Caleb because he's my favorite and what if I don't do him justice?! So if anyone has any feedback on him, or anything else, as this goes I'd really appreciate it!

Jester was expecting Caduceus to lead them towards the front of the house so that they could enter through the main entrance. Instead, he led them towards the side of the house closest to the toolshed and up three small steps to an old wooden door that was just as overgrown with ivy as the top of the house near the chimneys was. He pushed and held the door open, and Jester followed Nott inside. 

Wooden shelves lined the upper portions of the walls. Jars, cans, and bottles full of mystery ingredients were carefully stacked and arranged on each shelf; each one bore a small faded white label with tiny cursive handwriting that Jester couldn’t make out. Pots and pans hung on hooks nearest to the stove and oven, and wooden utensils poked out from a metal can on the countertop close at hand. Potted plants hung out on the window sill, their leafy vines spilling into the sink below, the tips of their curly leaves brushing against a couple of dirty dishes. In the center of the room was a four-person wooden table, a simple white tablecloth over it, and most importantly, a large white ceramic container labeled: COOKIES.

Jester must have been staring because Caduceus chuckled and said as the door closed behind him with a soft _click_ , “You can have some if you want.”

She didn’t have to be told twice. Jester ran over to the table, pulled off the heavy container with her right hand, and reached inside with her left. Caduceus went over to the stove and turned on the gas. “Do you like tea, Jester?”

“Mm, shure ay do.” She said, mouth full. Jester swallowed and shoved a couple of cookies into the pockets of her dress. “Sure I do,” she said again.

“Good, that’s good,” he said as he lit the stovetop with a match from his pocket. She watched him fill a teakettle with water from the sink and place it over a burner. He reached up towards one of the wooden shelves, and Jester was amazed that he didn’t even have to stand up on his tip-toes to reach. She giggled to imagine Nott trying to reach even the lowest of the shelves without a stepladder of some kind.

“Come on, Jester,” Nott said, “I’ll show you your room and then you can meet Caleb!”

Jester looked away from Caduceus and towards Nott who stood at the other end of the kitchen by a door leading further into the house. She put the lid back on the cookie jar, and walked around the table. “See you later, ‘Duceus!” She said. He hummed at her as he unscrewed the lid from a jar he had pulled down.

Nott led her out of the small kitchen and into a much larger one. Jester stopped and looked around just to be certain of her surroundings. It was a bigger and more modern kitchen than the one they had just come from. She touched one of the countertops and it was cool to the touch, like marble. The cabinets were painted a delicate creamy brown, and the floors under her feet were tile. There was even a dishwasher in this kitchen. “Wait, I thought we were just in the kitchen!”

“We were!” Nott said. “That was Mr. Clay’s kitchen. This kitchen is for parties, or when there are a lot of guests coming over—it’s easier to prepare food and stuff since there’s so much more room. But this one isn’t used as often anymore…Anyways, let’s get a move on.”

Jester followed Nott and tried to wrap her head around the idea of a house needing a kitchen for hosting events and a kitchen just for regular everyday use—or possibly even just for Caduceus. Maybe it wasn’t the idea of it that was so strange to her, but the fact that the larger kitchen wasn’t used anymore. Did her Great Uncle Caleb really spend so much time alone? Surely there was a time when the kitchen was necessary, and that there was a time when his life was full of people and not just a housekeeper and a man in the garden who makes tea. Thinking about it made her sad. The dining room they walked into next just solidified Jester’s feeling. Sunlight poured out from the windows onto the polished wood of a table that stretched out far enough to seat at least twelve people even though only three people lived here.

Four if she counted herself. Five when her mother came.

She perked up at the realization that her and her mama might be able to help fill up the seats at the table. And maybe she could make and invite friends, and she could have birthday parties here and all sorts of get-togethers and all the empty rooms she’d seen so far would have a reason again. Mama had said herself that one of the reasons they were moving was to keep Great Uncle Caleb company, and even if Nott said he was simply just a private man, surely there was some part of him that would like to have people around. Jester had never met the man but now that the idea was in her head, she was almost certain it was the case.

When they reached the foyer, Nott set Jester’s suitcase down and pointed to the staircase. “Your room is upstairs on the second floor,” she said. “I think Caleb is in the library, we can put your stuff away and go introduce you.”

Jester buzzed with excitement at the thought of her new bedroom and before Nott could protest, she swiped her suitcase from the floor and skipped up the stairs. Halfway up, she called to Nott: “I’ll race you!” She heard Nott run up the stairs after her, and was surprised that such a small woman could have loud thundering steps.

“Third room on the right side!” Nott shouted as Jester made it to the top of the stairs and looked around uncertainly. Jester followed her directions and raced towards that room just as Nott reached the top of the stairs herself. She threw open the door and gasped, dropping her suitcase on the ground.

“This is _my_ room?” She squealed excitedly.

The walls of her new bedroom were painted a soft pink color, and the trim was white with a simple pattern of small baby-blue roses. In the left corner of her room was her bed, a twin-sized mattress with a fluffy pink duvet under a canopy of sheer pink curtains and twinkling fairy-lights. The floors were hardwood, but they’d placed an area rug in the center of the room shaped and colored like a donut. A vanity was pressed up against the right side of the wall, in the perfect place for sunlight from the window to illuminate her reflection in the mirror. Birds and dragons and pegasus hung on thin strings from the ceiling, rotating gently as they chased each other through the air. There was a bookshelf already full of books and when Jester came closer to look, hands covering her mouth, she saw that they were her books from home. Her mama must have sent them early!

“We left some space for the rest of your stuff, but we thought we’d get a head start on decorating. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Oh Nott! It’s perfect! This is incredible!” Jester threw her arms around the housekeeper, and pulled her into a big hug. “I love it so much! I think I’m going to cry!” She was pretty sure she was already crying actually, but Nott didn’t need to know that.

Nott was tense for only a moment before relaxing and hugging Jester back. “Don’t thank me,” she said, “It was Caleb’s idea! He called your mom and asked after your favorite things, then he had the room painted and ordered special decorations and furniture just for you!”

Jester released Nott, speechless. “You said he’s in the library?”

***

Jester and Nott stood outside the doors of the library, and Jester couldn’t help but feel nervous. She picked at the lace on her dress again as Nott knocked on the door two times before pushing it open. “Caleb? Jester is here!” Jester looked over Nott’s head and into the library. It was easily the most impressive part of the house she’d seen so far. Well, other than her own room of course because that was pretty impressive.

The library was ginormous. From floor to ceiling, the walls were covered in shelves that were packed with the colorful spines of different books. There were only two places on the walls that weren’t taken up by bookshelves, and that was the massive windows letting in natural light and a spot behind a polished writing desk on which a tapestry hung from. Even from the doorway, Jester could make out the gorgeous design of a Platinum Dragon. Like her bedroom, the floors were hardwood but there were strategically placed area rugs. There was one in front of the lit fireplace, and only the corners of the ornate design were covered by a couple of overstuffed sitting chairs that Jester longed to sit in and doze off while reading some of her favorite stories or sketching and writing in her journal. From the doorway, a runner led up to another area rug on which the writing desk and couple more chairs sat on.

Jester let her eyes follow the runner up towards the desk, and noticed the man sitting behind it, scribbling meticulously in a large book while the Platinum Dragon stood guard behind him. She followed Nott, who cleared her throat, into the library. “Caleb? Jester is here!” Nott said again. They waited for a moment, now standing directly in front of the desk, before Nott shrieked: “CALEB!”

Her Great Uncle Caleb jumped in surprised, and looked at the two of them over his glasses. “ _Was_?”

“Jester is here,” Nott said sweetly. Jester stifled a giggle.

“Oh,” he set his pen down gently next to the book he’d been writing in, “why didn’t you say something sooner?”

He stood up and walked around the desk, and Jester heard the soft _thunk_ of a cane on the ground. Now that he was closer, Jester took in every little detail she could about the man her mama called uncle. He was bundled up in an oversized knit cardigan that threatened to swallow him whole, but he didn’t look frail in it, just small. She noticed the beginnings of two very different necklaces disappearing underneath the collar of his shirt, and when he turned his head to look at her, she caught the glint of earrings underneath his hair. His hair was longer and thicker than she would have expected from an old man, but it was gray and silver with not even a hint of what color it could have been in his youth. The same was true of his neatly trimmed beard that surprisingly made him look both old and young all at once. The wrinkles around his forehead, eyes, and mouth spoke equally of a great sadness and great love, and Jester wanted to know kind of life he had lived to have both etched into the very lines of his face. Behind his glasses, intelligent blue eyes studied her just as intently.

Caleb offered one hand in greeting, and Jester took it in her own. His hands were warm, soft, and wrinkled, but Jester could feel callouses in certain places that, based on the splotches of ink on his hand, probably came from years and years of writing. When she looked down at where their hands met, she was surprised to see that against her own skin, he was as pale as the inside petal of a pink-rose.

“Hello, I’m Jester,” she said. She wasn’t sure if she should hug him or not, so she squeezed his hand a little bit instead. He gave her a warm smile and squeezed her hand gently in return.

“Hallo Jester,” he said and his voice was thick with an accent she didn’t recognize, “it’s nice to meet you. Again, I should say. The last time I saw you, you were even smaller than our good friend Nott here.”

“You knew me when I was a baby?” Jester asked.

“Ja, of course. I was there when you were born.”

“What was I like?” She pulled on his hand so that he was forced to lean in closer. “Was I adorable? As cute as I am now I mean? Or even cuter? Was I a cry-baby? Mama said I wasn’t but she’s my mama so it’s possible that she’s just telling me what I want to hear. She said I always laughed a lot. Is that true? Did I pull any pranks as a baby? Can babies pull pranks? Was I born with a full head of hair? Does that actually give mommies heart burn? Where—“

“I brought tea,” Caduceus interrupted as he walked into the library, holding a tray out in front of him. Jester released Caleb as Nott scurried over towards Caduceus to help. Caleb leaned back and chuckled softly.

“Let’s talk about all that over tea, ja? We have plenty of time to get to know each other again,” he said and turned towards where Nott and Caduceus were setting up in front of the fireplace. After a moment, Jester followed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently ideal update times don't always exist when you're in your senior year of your undergrad, but I'd still like to update every other Monday when possible.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She sweeps with many-colored brooms,  
> And leaves the shreds behind;  
> Oh, housewife in the evening west,  
> Come back, and dust the pond!
> 
> You dropped a purple ravelling in,  
> You dropped an amber thread;  
> And now you've littered all the East  
> With duds of emerald!
> 
> And still she plies her spotted brooms,  
> And still the aprons fly,  
> Till brooms fade softly into stars--  
> And then I come away. 
> 
> Emily Dickinson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's probably less of a chapter summary and more of just a "This is what I was thinking of while writing."

“And I was really nervous at first,” Jester said to the air as she lay on her stomach doodling in her sketchbook, “but I shouldn’t really have been because everyone here is really nice. Nott is really short, but she has really long and really pretty hair and she said she’d let me braid it! Even Caduceus said he’d let me braid his hair, and get this Traveler, he said he’d dye my hair to look like cotton candy! I am _so_ excited!” 

Jester finished off a drawing of herself with cotton candy on her head, and reached for her blue and pink colored pencils. “Great Uncle Caleb is really nice too. I don’t know if he would let me braid his hair—I didn’t ask—but I don’t think he would object. Especially if he was too busy to notice like he was earlier today when Nott and I first came into the library. How funny would it be if he went through his entire day without realizing?”                                                          

She giggled and put the pink colored pencil off to the side and took up her regular pencil again in favor of drawing a whole bunch of Uncle Calebs doing different things with his hair all in different styles. Drinking his morning tea with his hair in an over the shoulder braid, reading a book by the fireplace with his hair in a beehive on top of his head—this made her laugh the hardest—and playing with Frumpkin while wearing a flower crown bigger than his entire face.

“I miss my mama lots, but I don’t think I’ll be very lonely here before she comes. I have you, and Nott, and Caduceus, and Uncle Caleb. I don’t think I’ve ever had so many friends before.” Jester set her pencil down and rested her cheek against her hand as a breeze came in through her open bedroom window. The wind rustled her loose, curly hair and she smiled. “No of course not, I listed you first because I’ll never forget you, Traveler. I’ll draw and write about all the adventures here in this new home so that you’re a part of it all!”

“ _Meow_!” Jester jumped up from her bed and ran to her window.

“Traveler? Are you a cat now? That’s like the coolest thing ever!” She looked out her window into the nighttime. “Traveler? Are you there? Here kitty, kitty, kitty.” Jester had never wished for the ability to see in the dark more than she did right now.

“ _Meow_!” She tracked the noise towards a nearby tree and saw the light from her bedroom reflecting eerily on two green eyes.

“Traveler?” The wind gently blew her hair into her eyes and for a moment, all she could hear was the sound of it shaking the leaves in the tree. She felt something soft, light, but _solid_ hit her chest and with a cry she fell backwards into her room, arms wrapping around whatever it was that jumped onto her.

Jester landed on her butt and when she settled there, she heard a satisfied purring from the weight on her lap. She pushed the hair out her eyes, wishing she hadn’t taken out her ribbons just yet, and looked down to see a cat in her lap. She recognized him almost instantly from all the cards her Great Uncle Caleb had sent her over the years. Green eyes, orange fur lined with dark brown and black stripes, and the cutest, pinkest nose she had ever seen.

Frumpkin looked at her and blinked his intelligent eyes slowly. Jester squealed.

***

Over the course of the next couple of days, Jester realized that although she was not lonely, she was just a little bit _bored_. This was because out of the four people who lived in such a grand house, including herself, she was the only one without a single chore to keep her occupied.

As the housekeeper, Nott took care of a majority of the cleaning and laundry, and when Jester had offered to help, she’d happily accepted. But when Jester spilled wet laundry all over the dusty ground near the drying lines, Nott pursed her thin lips and suggested that Jester try and collect some eggs from the chicken coops for a tasty breakfast—but that was an entirely different story altogether.

And later on, when Jester had approached Caduceus to ask if he needed help—it turned out he was Caleb’s groundskeeper who also enjoyed cooking—he had also happily accepted. But when Jester pulled out what she thought were clumps of weeds, Caduceus’s eyes widened and he kindly took them from her hands and pointed her in the direction of some leaves that needed raking.

So she ended up near the shed, struggling with a rake that was much too large for her. With a frustrated huff, Jester threw the rake down onto the ground and stomped into the toolshed to look for something more suitable for someone her height—she just wasn’t tall enough to use the monstrous rake that Caduceus called his own! No wonder Nott took care of most of the inside chores.

The inside of the toolshed was dark, but there was enough sunlight coming in from the open door for Jester to move around comfortably. There were a couple of wooden crates stacked up in the corner that Jester wanted to rifle through, but she decided to save that for later. There was a workbench covered in sawdust and when Jester approached, she saw small wooden carvings and figured that Caduceus had a lot of hobbies to keep himself occupied whenever he had a free moment. She noticed watering cans of different sizes and colors piled high on a coiled gardening hose. Up against the far wall of the shed, tools were lined up. Another long rake, a long shovel, a long broom, even a pickaxe. Jester ignored all of them as she shuffled them around, hoping to find something more her height.

Jester gasped when something touched her ankle and she looked down to see Frumpkin weaving in between her feet. “Oh Frumpkin!” She exclaimed. “Have you seen something that I can use to help Caduceus clean up the leaves? I was helping him in the garden but I think I tore out something important, and he’s not mad, but he asked me to do this instead so I want to make sure I can do a really good job. Unlike when Nott sent me to collect eggs…” She frowned when she thought of all the yolks seeping into the hay on the ground and into the fabric of her dress.

Frumpkin chirped and dashed into the corner of the toolshed. Jester heard a crash and she winced as the cat knocked something—or a couple of somethings over—before she went over to investigate. In the wake of his destruction, Frumpkin unearthed a tiny broomstick. Jester picked it up and measured herself against it. Perfect height! “Oh thank you Frumpkin, you are the best cat ever!” She said excitedly, looking to give the cat a great big hug and kiss in thanks. “Frumpkin?” Jester looked around the toolshed but he was gone. She shrugged and went back outside.

Fully in the sunlight, Jester inspected the broomstick. The handle was wooden, and all along it were intricate carvings that she couldn’t read. She committed them to memory so that she could write them down later in her sketchbook to ask the Traveler about. He’d been so many places that she just knew he’d have something to say about it. The bristles themselves were of many colors. Each piece of straw was so different from the last that they reminded Jester of the different colors of a sunset stretching across the sky. As wonderful as it was though, it was missing just a little extra something. Jester removed one of her ribbons from her hair and tied it around the broom near the base.

“Perfect!”

Jester set to work. She swept up the leaves confidently despite the fact that small pieces were leftover in her wake. She didn’t mind, she finally had something to do! She hummed one of her mama’s songs to herself as she worked. She became so invested that she didn’t notice that someone was watching her, didn’t notice when he politely cleared his throat, or even when he said: “Excuse me.”

She didn’t notice until he finally very nearly shouted: “ _Hello_?”

“Oh hello!” Jester looked up and saw a boy standing there around her age, possibly a year or two older than her. His hair was short and black, and his eyes were brown—when he turned his head to smile at her in exasperation, the light hit them and for a moment, they looked almost gold. She noticed that when he did smile, he was missing a couple of his front teeth. He wore a white tank top, gray shorts, and sandals. His dark skin was spotted in places with lighter colors up and down his slightly chubby legs, arms, and even his face; like a model that her mama had once worked with—she had called it vertigo? No, she called it vitiligo. At his feet was a small brown and white spotted puppy who was panting excitedly.

“Is Mr. Widogast home?” He asked.

“Is that your dog?” Jester dropped her broom and ran over. “Can I pet your puppy? Please?”

The boy looked down at the puppy. “He ain’t mine, go on ahead.”

“Thank you!” She knelt down and the puppy immediately went to her, yipping and licking her face. She giggled. “Hello there! Yes, I love you too! Is it a boy or a girl? What’s their name?”

“A boy. An’ he ain’t got a name; he jus follows me around. We ain’t allowed pets at the church.”

“You live in a church?” Jester looked up from the puppy and at the boy.

He bit his lip and his eyebrows scrunched together. “In the orphanage at the church.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“That’s alright.”

An awkward silence settled between them, disrupted only by the dog’s panting. “I’m going to name your puppy Nugget,” Jester told the boy.

“He ain’t mine,” he said again but he smiled, “you can name him whatever you want. If your parents say yes, you can even keep him. That way he’ll have a good home and won’t have to hang around the church for food scraps.”

Jester’s eyes sparkled. “I wonder if Uncle Caleb would let me keep Nugget!”

“Mr. Widogast is your uncle?”

“Technically he’s my great uncle,” she said as she scooped Nugget into her arms. “You were looking for him, right? I can take you inside. I’m Jester by the way!” She held Nugget under one arm, and extended the other to shake the boy’s hand.

“Jester?” He took her hand in his own. “Name’s Fjord.”

***

“Uncle Caleb!” Jester shouted once they were inside. She set Nugget on the ground and the puppy immediately began to sniff around the floor.

“Uh Jester?” Fjord said.

“Uncle Caleb! Someone is here to see you!”

“Jester?”

“UNCLE CALEB!” She yelled with her hands cupped around her mouth.

“ _Jester_!”

“What is it, Fjord?” She asked, dropping her hands to her side.

“Nugget.”

“What about him?” But then she felt something warm and wet on her leg and when she looked down, the puppy was relieving himself on both her stockings and her shoes. She scowled at Nugget but he looked at her with his big brown eyes and she giggled in delight before picking him up and cradling him against her chest. “You are a very bad puppy!”

“Mein Gott, Jester, what is it?” Caleb demanded, and she heard concern in his voice as he limped his way into the foyer. His eyes got big and round behind his glasses when he saw Nugget, and he stopped walking just to stare better. Around his ankles, Frumpkin arched his back and he looked bristly all over before jumping up onto Caleb’s shoulders. Her uncle collected himself and continued making his way over to her and Fjord. “Jester, schatz, what is that?”

“This is Fjord, he came here to see you.”

“Ja, Jester, I know that is Fjord, this is not my first time meeting him. I’m talking about the creature in your arms.”

“Oh, this is Nugget!”

“I’m awful sorry, Mr. Widogast.” Fjord said. “The puppy hangs around the church a lot an’ he followed me here on my errand. Your great niece took a shinin’ to him.”

“What smells like pee?”

“Nugget just needs to be potty-trained is all,” Jester said defensively.

Caleb looked down at her wet shoe and leg. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Frumpkin draped himself around Caleb’s neck and began to purr, and the old man reached up to scratch behind the cat’s ear without a second thought. “We will talk about the puppy in a minute, but what is it you need, Fjord?”

“I’m just here to deliver a letter,” he said simply. He took a folded envelope from his back pocket and handed it over to Caleb. Caleb accepted the letter and put it in the pocket of his cardigan.

“Now Jester, I am not your parent but I am your guardian. I do not appreciate you bringing a puppy into the home that we now share together without my knowledge. I am not against you having a pet of your own,” he said as he continued to pet Frumpkin who was purring louder than Nugget was panting, “but we should discuss the matter with your mother first.”

“Does that mean?”

Caleb sighed. “Nugget can stay in the coop until we solve this; but I definitely do not want a pet who is not toilet trained inside of this house—even then, I would prefer if he were an outside dog to be perfectly honest with you.”

Before Jester could protest, Fjord said: “Technically he’s already an outside dog. He sleeps outside the church in the yard; I’m sure he’d be more than happy to sleep with some chickens. He ain’t gonna eat any either, he’s familiar with the chickens at the church already. If anything, he’d make a good guard dog when he’s older.”

“The church will not miss him?” Caleb asked.

Fjord scowled. “There’s only a handful of decent kids at that orphanage, Mr. Widogast. Nugget is too nice for his own good to know the difference between a bully an’ a helping hand.”

“So Nugget can stay here?” Jester asked.

“Nugget can stay here,” Caleb agreed. “And when he is toilet trained, he can come inside more often; but for now, let’s keep outside where he can run around freely and urinate as he pleases.”

Jester squealed so loudly that Nugget wiggled himself free from her arms just to get away from the sound, and both Caleb and Fjord flinched away from her. “Thank you, Uncle Caleb! Thank you so much! You won’t regret it! He will be the best puppy you’ve ever met and I will potty-train him in no time at all! And Fjord, you should come over to visit Nugget lots! That way he’ll know that you haven’t forgotten him!”

“We heard yelling!” Nott said as she and Caduceus ran inside. “Is everyone alright—what is _that_?” She said pointing in Nugget’s direction at the same time Caduceus said: “Oh look! A puppy!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's not Monday, but it's been like over a month since I've updated and I am still here. I'll try to update again this upcoming Monday. Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> In an ideal world, this will update every other Monday.


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